Eurean accents to train the future journalists

Robot journalist, artificial intelligence, ChatGPT, who (or what?) will write a news story in 140 characters instantly? This information line is already commonplace. Times and circumstances have changed journalism. The COVID-19 pandemic and the Russian war in Ukraine influenced the subject and content of the media. News consumers are demanding. Producers of media products compete, fight for readers, listeners, and viewers. Discussions between practitioners and theoreticians of journalism sometimes boil down to whether this profession will remain in demand at all? At the Educational and Scientific Institute of Journalism of Taras Shevchenko Kyiv National University, there is a confidence that there will be journalism, because artificial intelligence will not replace human intelligence. But journalists already now need to learn to quickly master new and new knowledge and skills. To keep up with the emergence of robotics in newsrooms, to skillfully work with large amounts of information, to manage new technical means of distributing journalistic materials. To ce with these challenges and maintain interest in the profession among future professionals, professors themselves need to change. For the professors of the biggest university, such changes come with the creation and mastering of new technogies, formats, and training programmes.

About the technogy of training future journalists is in an interview with the director of the Educational and Scientific Institute of Journalism of the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Professor Vodymyr Rizun and associate professor, Ph.D. in social communications, associate professor at this university’s social communications department Bogdana Nosova about the technogy for training future journalists. For four years, these schars, together with the university team and partners from seven Eurean countries, led the Erasmus + KA 2 DESTIN project with the support of the Eurean Union. Vodymyr Rizun was the institutional manager, and Bogdana Nosova was the administrative manager. This project initiated significant changes in the system of training professionals for the media environment.

– Professor Rizun, what is the nature of the DESTIN project?

Vodymyr Rizun: DESTIN is “Journalism Education for Democracy in Ukraine: Develing Standards, Integrity and Professionalism”.

The teaching staff and journalists who worked on this project call it by its shorted abbreviation, i.e., by the first letters DESTIN.

This project helped us and other professors from 10 Ukrainian universities to change curricula and programmes in journalism for bachelors and masters. What is it for? First of all, so that our graduates can find a better job after their studies. Now the curricula and programmes have been modernized, that is, we have brought the training technogy closer to the standards of the Eurean Union. And this means that there are wider employment portunities not only in the domestic, local media. The interest of foreign media in Ukrainian news has increased. That is why the international mobility of Ukrainian journalists is becoming more active. This project aims to improve and devel journalism education in Ukraine – updating curricula and study programmes in journalism for bachelors and masters. Its implementation brings the teaching technogy closer to the Eurean Union’s standards. And this means that journalism students have broader employment portunities, and their international mobility is getting more active. Also, the project is interesting for a wide range of stakehders since DESTIN focuses on providing skills for spreading media literacy in society. The Educational and Scientific Institute of Journalism of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv was the national coordinator of DESTIN from Ukraine.

– How did it all begin, and why exactly did the Institute of Journalism become the national coordinator?

Vodymyr Rizun: The desire to modernize education does not arise spontaneously. It is inspired by changes in the media industry and society. This is not our first project to update journalism education. DESTIN was also based on the resources and knowledge develed in the Tempus ALIGN project, also funded by the Eurean Union. And how it all began and why our Institute became the national coordinator is well known to Professor Bogdana Nosova…

– Professor Nosova, will you combine memories with real results?

Bogdana Nosova: When I stand in front of my students, I remember being a student myself in the classroom. Memory brings the words of the best professors about the journalist’s responsibility in the profession, in public communication. And it is a responsibility that prompts us to generate difficult decisions in journalism education. Our Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv and, in particular, our Institute of Journalism claborated with Bath Spa University from United Kingdom before. During my professional develment internships at this university with Professor Paul Hyland and other cleagues, we discussed and develed models and concepts of educational coeration and internationalization. I wanted to create a worthwhile educational project to draw attention to transformations in the digital and traditional media environments. After the visit of UK cleagues to our university, the creative ideas of professors Paul Hyland and Vodymyr Rizun came together. Professor Hyland and I were able to model multi-component claborative tasks. And its implementation was possible with the support of the Eurean Union Erasmus+ programme under the KA2 CBHE action (official title), which means Capacity Building in the field of Higher Education. This is how the implementation of the plan – qualitative changes in journalism education – began. Our Institute became the national coordinator because, starting from the idea and writing the application for receiving funds from the Eurean Union, we did a lot of work with Ukrainian universities and employers.

– Whom did the project unite? Who is already improving the training of journalists from many departments and faculties of Ukrainian universities?

Vodymyr Rizun: In the project, we managed to link 20 Eurean institutions, including 10 Ukrainian universities, governmental and non-governmental organizations of Ukraine, as well as universities and non-governmental organizations from Austria, Ireland, the Netherlands, Pand, Sweden, the United Kingdom and thus create a strong sectoral partnership network with good prospects for further claboration. We were fortunate that the Bath Spa University carried out the overall coordination, moderation and management very clearly and consistently. Professors Paul Hyland, Ian Gadd, Rachael McDonald and Adele Keane have been the best professional and moral support during the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russian war in Ukraine. We adted their experience and their style and became the national coordinator as the initiators of the idea. Staff at the National Erasmus+ Office in Ukraine provided consulting assistance throughout the entire project implementation.

– What is the purpose of such a union of so many institutions and why is the project taking such a long time?

Bogdana Nosova: You must have noticed how many new portunities have ened up for Ukrainian journalists who are fluent in foreign languages, know the techniques and technogies of transmitting news and facts for the media of different countries, in particular the EU, UK, and the USA. And this is happening against the background of the narrowing and reduction of the domestic, local media market. Our graduates help cleagues from other countries to get accredited in the press offices of Ukrainian ministries, accompany them on trips with special permits to de-occupied territories and to Ukrainian sdiers. They help cleagues from other countries to understand the historical roots of the centuries-d Ukrainian struggle for independence.

That is why we introduce the competence experience of Western universities in education. Our students are already learning to quickly perceive changes and challenges accompanying not only the media industry, but also Ukrainian society. After all, Eurean standards of integrity and professionalism are present in the Eurean Qualifications Framework (EQF). These are the horizons and the goal that we strive to reach with updated curricula and training programmes for bachelors and masters.

To this we add the National Guidelines – a clection of materials that will be helpful to all universities training media professionals in Ukraine. Many of our higher educational institutions train professionals for the media. Therefore, we invved many of them to enable networking and coeration between universities, national employers and student governments, as well as revitalize student and faculty exchanges with local and foreign universities. The project was planned according to the rules of similar programmes of the Eurean Union for three years, i.e., from 2018 to 2021. But the circumstances affected the course of the project: first, COVID-19, and then the full-scale Russian war in Ukraine. So, the EU, the Eurean Commission’s own Eurean Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA), has extended the terms of our work on implementing this project.

– At one of the working conferences, Professor Rizun, you mentioned that implementing the DESTIN project ens up the Eurean future for Ukrainian journalism education. What is its mission?

Vodymyr Rizun: Thanks to previous international projects, the mobility of our teaching staff, and creative approaches to writing study programmes, we managed to pass the first stage – the construction of an educational platform on which the educational process takes place. The second stage is partly related to the implementation of DESTIN. Its primary idea is to format the new content of bachelor’s and master’s programmes.

The general phrase – “Learn, you need it as journalists” – remains ill-considered. Students need help comprehending why they have a diverse number of courses. Currently, the Institute has implemented an experimental programme for bachelor training. Professors began to work as part of a single pedagogical team in delivering a complex course according to the designed modules. Each module is formed by a separate professor under the guidance of the person responsible for the sequence of modules in a certain course. For example, students master interviews. Previously, it was part of the study of genres in journalism in general. Now it is a combination with the processes of the develment of the genre: interviews in various media, in social media as well, etc. There are also lectures on interviewing technogy, writing, filming, fact-checking, and acquiring communication skills. Emphasis on the ability to prepare one’s own intellectual base related to the interview tic is mandatory. This is flowed by practical classes. On them, students unite and reproduce the processes of promotion of a media product. They learn how to model interviews for subject matter, relevance, and readability. This is how modular learning technogy works.

This is what reveals the Eurean nature of the educational process. But it turned out that such a form of teamwork is beyond the power of individual professors. We needed their retraining. Perhaps to this end, we will design a new international project. In the future, we he to submit the bachelor’s programme for international accreditation. This is very important for the future professional diploma, for students from other countries. In addition, we are working on the implementation of a new master’s programme. This work requires innovative approaches and a focus on the scientific aspect. We also ensure that the implementation of DESTIN objectives is in harmony with the requirements of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, the National Agency for Higher Education Quality Assurance and in conjunction with Eurean education standards.

– Therefore, after completing the DESTIN project, the achievements include new curricula and completely changed study programmes for bachelors and masters, and what else?

Vodymyr Rizun: The main products include the document, which is the “Clection of National Methodogical Guidelines for the Content, Develment and Implementation of the Bachelor’s and Master’s Study Programmes in Journalism Develed within Erasmus+ KA2 DESTIN Project” (abbreviated title “National Guidelines”), an official thematic website for communicating the results of the work and for all those interested in the idea of change, a series of online Media Literacy Outreach Courses. The National Guidelines were develed together with journalism teaching staff from Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Zaporizhzhia National University, Mariup State University, Academician Stepan Demianchuk International University of Economics and Humanities, Bohdan Khmelnytsky National University of Cherkasy, Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, Sumy State University, Uzhhorod National University, Yur Fedkovych Chernivtsi National University. The creation of National Guidelines was preceded by monitoring and analysis of the curricula of Ukrainian universities, by meetings and trainings, and consultations with our international partners. They are based on Ukrainian educational legislation and data reflected in comparative and analytical reports, improved methodogy and advice from Ukrainian professional associations, student associations and employers in journalism. This methodogical guide is publicly available on the official website of our project in Ukrainian and English https://www.destin-project.info/en/.

Bogdana Nosova: Activities within DESTIN helped universities to partially upgrade the equipment for training students – future media workers. But most importantly, it affected the change in understanding the journalists’ re in a multicultural society. Work on the implementation of the project’s objectives contributed to the establishment of stable relations between the journalistic university community and the media industry in Ukraine. We can observe increasing internationalization of study programmes and the emerging professional networks between Eurean journalism schos. Thus, the Faculty of Journalism of Lviv University, which was represented in the project by Natalia Habor, Yuliana Lavrysh, Yur Zalizniak and their cleagues, develed and signed an Agreement with the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań on coeration in the implementation of master’s programmes. Students who study with it will receive diplomas from Ukrainian and Pish universities. And the final meeting of the project was successfully prepared by cleagues at the Adam Mickiewicz University, Bartosz Hordecki, Tomasz Brańka, and Jędrzej Skrzypczak. Due to the all-out Russian war in Ukraine, this conference had to be moved from Lviv to Poznań.

Participants from Ukrainian universities united into the Ukrainian Forum for Educators in Media and Journalism, which ens wider prospects for interaction and coeration, as well as for domestic and international mobility of students and professors. In addition, we develed new online media literacy courses aimed at high scho students, university students and the wider society.

Vodymyr Rizun: After February 24, 2022, we implemented the DESTIN project in the conditions of a large-scale Russian war against Ukraine. Our partner, Mariup State University, was destroyed and relocated from Mariup to Kyiv. Russian bombings destroyed the buildings of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. Our universities had to reformat the educational and research process quickly. Training in bomb shelters was added to online work.

The campuses of more than 43 universities and academic institutes were damaged or destroyed due to the shelling and bombing of the regions of Ukraine by the Russian invaders. International partners began to provide assistance from the first days of the large-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine. DESTIN showed us how to think about the perspective of the post-war recovery of Ukrainian universities.

The interview was conducted by Yurii Havrylets, journalist, Ph.D. in social communications, Assistant Professor at the Educational and Scientific Institute of Journalism of the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv